In most industries, accusations of multiple inappropriate relationships and ongoing corporate governance concerns are enough to see the CEO shown the door. Which makes the ongoing WiseTech Global brouhaha all the more fascinating.

In case you’ve not been following along, ASX-listed Australian tech company WiseTech Global, with a market capitalisation of $27 billion, is wildly successful. Its flagship product is CargoWise, a platform designed to streamline and optimise global supply chain operations.

Earlier this year, WiseTech’s founder Richard White – who has been quoted as saying, “I am WiseTech” – was forced to step down when a slew of accusations about his conduct came to light. Mere months later, he was reinstated, triggering the resignation of four independent directors and sending shockwaves through the investment community.

Throughout it all, White has remained defiant. His stance? Customers don’t care. WiseTech has the best product on the market – and that, he argues, is what matters.

But in the world of enterprise software as a service (SaaS), and indeed the B2B sector more broadly, that logic doesn’t hold up.

When the founder becomes the brand – and behaves in ways that undermine governance and culture – it creates a reputational risk that product alone cannot offset.

Three aspects of brand at play

There are three interconnecting aspects of brand the WiseTech saga shines a light on. The first is the customer value proposition or CVP. CVP speaks to the alignment between what a company offers and what its customers need.

Take the example of Qantas. Reliability and service have long been key pillars of its CVP. But that promise was undermined by a string of customer service failures. No matter how strong the product offering appeared on paper, the lived customer experience didn’t match which undermined the CVP.

But Qantas largely operates in the B2C space. Its brand is supported by all manner of traditional brand-building and will be sustained by its place in our collective hearts and minds. In WiseTech’s case, customers are large-scale businesses. The company has so far delivered on its promise to help organisations better manage their logistics which is why White asserts they don’t care about the boardroom drama.

But WiseTech isn’t selling a one-off tool. It’s selling a subscription service – a promise of value not just today, but tomorrow and into the future. That long-term promise demands more than a great product at a moment in time. It requires trust that the product will continue to adapt, improve and deliver, over time. Customers might not have expressed concern about the instability at the heart of WiseTech yet, but the scrutiny will eventually come.

The second aspect of brand in the spotlight is reputation. When it comes to B2B enterprise software, where purchases are high-stakes and high-cost, customers must be confident not only in the product but in the company behind it. A vendor’s reputation feeds directly into risk assessments and procurement decisions. When the founder pushes out directors or ignores governance standards this raises legitimate questions about long-term sustainability. This is no doubt why Australia’s largest super fund sold its $580 million stake in the business.

The third branding aspect at play here is culture, or the employee value proposition (EVP). To his credit, White is very clear that culture is central to how a product is built, maintained and improved, as his refreshing un-corporate Jerry Maguire-style credo suggests. But destabilising that culture destabilises the product. It’s not just investors who are watching. Future employees, engineers, and the very talent needed to sustain innovation may begin to look elsewhere. Especially if they’re women.

Big personalities at the helm

Of course, WiseTech isn’t the only business to be built in the image of a founder with foibles. Once the poor behaviour of a founder (often in their personal life) comes out, it tends to follow that the door opens to all the things in their business affairs that also haven’t been as perfect. Founders are brave, they take risks, they act out but there are inevitably two sides to this.

Take the case of Elon Musk and Tesla. Musk’s behaviour has long sent Tesla’s stock price into a spin and his current role in the US government is giving shareholders plenty of sleepless nights. With Tesla now a publicised political lightning rod, investors are on a rollercoaster ride they didn’t sign up for. Some customers are even going as far as rebadging their cars.

Closer to home, the brand of Magellan and its co-founder Hamish Douglass were closely interwoven. Which worked well. Until it didn’t.

It’s fair to say that scepticism is increasing over Andrew Forrest, out front for a bevy of next-gen energy companies. Despite his mind-blowing success and wealth from the more prosaic world of iron ore.

When a founder’s personal brand dominates, the company becomes vulnerable to their whims, values, and mistakes.

WiseTech now finds itself in similar territory. White’s return suggests a business where the usual checks and balances don’t apply. That may feel visionary at the start of the journey when things are going well. But what happens when it shifts sideways?

White’s age and behaviour raise further questions about the long-term sustainability of the leadership he so vigorously asserts. He’s 70 years old and reportedly lives a lifestyle usually associated with a rockstar in their 30s. Even if he’s at the height of his powers now, in 10 years he’ll be 80. For a company selling continuity, stability and innovation over time, the lack of a clear succession plan is a glaring vulnerability.

When you have a leader who sees themself as the brand, who sets the tone in an idiosyncratic way and acts counter to the expectations of an ASX-listed company, it’s time to take the red flags seriously and for the principles of good governance to kick in. In a world where brand, product and culture are deeply interconnected, to do otherwise creates value for no one.